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When  something  like  the  Sacred  Stone  camp,  or  a large  demonstration,  or 
potentially  even  a new  project  of  exploitation  presents  itself,  we  can  get 
together  with  people  that  we  know  and  trust  and  discuss  ways  to  respond. 
From  these  groups  we  can  engage  in  a critical  manner  with  others  in  the 


struggle  while  building  our  capacity  to  act  in  our  own  groups.  We  can  bring 
the  energy  of  groups  rather  than  passive  spectators  to  anything  that  may 
be  happening.  Sometimes  the  best  support  that  one  can  give  is  creating  new 
fronts  for  the  enemy  to  defend,  and  participants  for  them  to  be  weary  of. 


- AGENCY - 
AGAINST 
PIPELINES 


Llud 


DIN  Pro  Condensed  Black 


Neuton,  Bold,  Extra  Bold,  Italic  & Cursive 


and  rebellion  against  a social  order  that  was  founded  upon  genocide  is 
somehow  expected  to  be  “safe”.  This  does  not  mean  that  I expect  us  all 
to  be  robotic,  emotionless  martyrs  but  that  we  might  want  to  practice  a 
little  bit  more  courage  than  we’ve  been  showing. 


“Anti- oppression,  civil  rights,  and  decolonization  struggles  clearly  reveal 
that  if  resistance  is  even  slightly  effective,  the  people  who  struggle  are  in 
danger.  The  choice  is  not  between  danger  and  safety,  but  between  the  un- 
certain dangers  of  revolt  and  the  certainty  of  continued  violence,  depriva- 
tion, and  death.” 

- Escalating  Identity,  “Who  Is  Oakland” 


"Agency  Against  Pipelines"  was  originally  published  in  the  second  issue  of 
Wreck,  an  anarchist  publication  based  out  of  Vancouver,  Occupied  Coast 
Salish  Territories. 


wreckpublication.wordpress.com 


• Build  and  challenge  your  relationships  - Many  of  us  exist  with- 
in social  scenes  and  many  of  us  have  diffuse  networks  of  people  with 
some  kind  of  common  interest.  There  are  many  relationships  such  as 
within  families  where  it  can  be  far  more  difficult  and  in  fact  impossible 
for  some  to  turn  in  a subversive  direction.  However  there  are  a variety 
of  relationships  that  many  of  us  allow  to  stagnate,  often  due  to  social 
insecurity,  which  have  infinite  potential  to  threaten  the  powers  that 
threaten  us  all.  We  must  be  in  search  of  deeper  affinities  with  those 
around  us.  This  can  come  from  supporting  each  other  emotionally,  but 
all  too  often  this  is  separated  from  challenging  internal  power  dynam- 
ics, social  mores  and  ideologies  which  prevent  us  from  being  strong  to- 
gether. Being  hip,  cool,  popular,  self-righteous,  intentionally  nerdy,  or 
wallowing  in  your  insecurity  will  only  get  you  so  far,  and  will  do  little  to 
build  relationships  of  trust.  Challenge  your  friends  to  fight  and  to  keep 
on  fighting,  support  them  in  their  fights,  and  remind  them  if  they  are 
leaving  a city  or  wherever  a struggle  is  happening  that  they  can  try  to 
find  other  ways  to  keep  up  the  fight. 

• Get  outside  your  comfort  zone  (calling  you  on  your  cop-out)  - We  all 
have  our  comfort  zones,  and  these  zones  are  ever  changing.  Those  of  us 
who  have  been  around  for  even  a short  period  of  time  know  what  to  ex- 
pect from  a workshop  or  panel  discussion.  Try  forming  your  own  ideas 
and  reading  revolutionary  writings  from  a lot  of  perspectives.  Beyond 
that,  try  applying  the  lessons  you  learn  from  books  or  through  word  of 
mouth  to  things  happening  on  the  ground  and  try  finding  others  in  a 
similar  place  with  the  intention  of  turning  ideas  into  action  - self-orga- 
nized action.  Don’t  wait  for  others  to  rally  you  to  some  cause,  waiting 
is  as  addictive  as  crack,  break  the  habit.  Also,  I feel  there  is  a disgusting 
level  of  infantilization,  victimization  and  self-righteous  posturing 
swirling  around  social  movements  and  scenes  these  days.  We  all  have 
our  boogeymen  as  well  as  legitimate  grievances  with  others.  But  all  too 
often  we  use  these  as  an  easy-out  for  disengagement  with  the  principles 
and  tensions  we  claim  to  hold  dear.  There  is  also  a vast  difference  be- 
tween being  unsafe  and  uncomfortable.  Life  is  full  of  both  discomfort 
and  danger.  The  western  political  morality  of  guaranteed  rights  and 
free  speech  that  seems  to  have  seeped  into  everyone’s  brains  has  meant 
that  “decolonization”  has  become  associated  only  with  “speaking  out”. 


AGENCY  AGAINST  PIPELINES 


by  LI ud 


The  twin  institutions  of  capitalism  and  the  state 

are  two  of  the  most  insanely  destructive  projects  that  human 
beings  have  ever  devised.  At  present,  climate  change  is  becoming  more 
and  more  obvious  to  the  average  person  and  the  misery  of  capitalism  is 
ever  deepening.  Resources  that  the  capitalist  system  uses  to  stay  afloat 
are  drying  up,  and  it  is  now  forced  to  go  into  the  shale  rock  and  sand  for 
these  energy  resources.  In  so  called  “British  Columbia,”  we  are  seeing 
pipelines  and  refinery  plants  being  pushed  forward  as  a last  ditch  effort 
to  keep  the  system  running  at  it’s  smooth  pace  in  spite  of  economic  and 
environmental  catastrophe. 

The  resistance  to  these  pipelines  has  been  multi-form  but  also  quite  limit- 
ed considering  the  vastness  of  the  problem  that  must  be  tackled.  We  have 
seen  non-violent  civil  disobedience  play  out  on  Burnaby  Mountain  in  re- 
sponse to  the  Kinder  Morgan  pipeline  expansion,  which  served  as  little 
more  than  a media  spectacle.  We  have  seen  Secwepemc  rebels  take  a more 
disruptive  approach  at  the  gatherings  of  CEO’s  and  others  with  business 
interests  related  to  pipeline  infrastructure.  Up  north,  we  have  seen  tradi- 
tional indigenous  clan  structures  distance  themselves  from  government 
band  council  structures,  as  a way  to  encourage  their  people  to  reclaim  their 
culture  and  lands.  All  these  among  many  others. 


The  Unist’ot’en  clan  of  the  Wet’suwet’en  people  have  a camp  that  is  block- 
ing multiple  pipelines.  At  present  the  camp  is  in  a public  discourse  dispute 
with  pipeline  construction  contractors  and  the  RCMP.  The  pigs  and  cor- 
porations appear  to  be  setting  up  the  case  for  an  injunction  of  the  land 
defense  camp  with  the  argument  that  they  are  disrupting  the  work  that 
surveyors  need  to  do.  The  camp  is  responding  with  the  legal  argument  that 
they  are  enacting  their  traditional  jurisdiction  on  their  lands  which  they 
have  never  ceded  to  colonial  and  capitalist  control.  It  is  also  significant 
that  the  camp  is  at  a strategic  pinch  point  of  a bridge  that  crosses  a river 
(Wedzin  Kwah). 

The  legacy  of  the  1990  Oka  rebellion  looms  large  in  the  minds  of  many 
as  what  can  happen  when  indigenous  people  refuse  to  allow  the  state  to 
walk  over  them.  In  recent  history  we  have  the  inspiring  resistance  of  the 
Milc’maq  people  and  their  warriors  who  defended  their  territories  against 
fracking  throughout  2013.  Both  these  examples  used  violent  self  de- 
fense, disruption  of  the  economy,  local  community  involvement  and  the 
Mik’maq  struggle  used  some  sabotage.  The  most  important  difference  of 
all  between  these  struggles  and  the  Unist’ot’en  camp  is  the  lack  of  a larger 
involvement  of  their  own  people  from  nearby  communities.  The  camp  has 
instead  preferred  a strategy  of  parachuting  activists  in  from  other  places. 
This  is  not  to  put  down  our  comrades  but  to  point  out  to  all  who  do  not 
seem  to  recognize  it,  that  different  strategies  will  have  different  outcomes, 
just  as  different  indigenous  peoples  have  different  social  dynamics  at  play. 

Modern  day  resistance  movements  have  a tendency  to  romanticize  strug- 
gles that  they  see  as  the  most  legitimate.  In  so  called  “Canada”  this  usually 
takes  the  form  of  support  or  “indigenous  solidarity”  to  the  initiatives  of 
indigenous  people.  On  the  west  coast  a great  deal  of  energy  has  been  put 
into  support  for  the  Unist’ot’en  camp.  The  best  way  that  many  have  been 
able  to  respond  to  the  tense  situation  up  north  is  fundraising  for  legal  de- 
fense and  infrastructure  at  the  camp,  as  well  as  trying  to  get  “bodies”  up 
there  for  “arrestability”  in  case  of  an  attempted  removal  by  police.  These 
attempts,  while  understandable,  will  not  stop  the  pipelines.  The  struggle 
must  be  diffuse,  but  instead  we  have  all  thrown  our  eggs  in  one  basket  with 
the  unrealistic  expectation  that  someone  will  stop  the  pipelines  for  us.  We 
have  done  a disservice  to  our  indigenous  comrades  by  placing  the  brunt  of 


action  against  pipelines  on  their  shoulders.  Anarchists  are  also  guilty  of 
this,  but  we  are  not  alone  in  exhibiting  this  problematic  dynamic.  Often 
the  justification  for  such  a position  is  that  of  “taking  leadership”.  A tragic 
lack  of  clarity  as  to  what  exactly  “leadership”  means  has  left  many  hands 
tied,  and  the  “safest”  way  to  continue  is  seen  as  renouncing  one’s  agency. 

Those  of  us  that  acknowledge  that  the  current  context  of  capitalist  ex- 
ploitation will  deepen  the  misery  of  most  of  us,  must  find  more  creative 
ways  to  relate  to  struggle.  Queers,  POC’s,  anarchists,  trans  people,  stu- 
dents, all  the  many  others,  and  all  of  our  wider  networks  that  do  not  easily 
fit  into  only  one  or  even  any  of  these  categories  must  struggle  on  our  own 
terms. 

There  are  an  infinite  variety  of  ways  in  which  we  can  begin  to  do  this,  here 
are  a few  possible  examples: 

• Expand  the  terrain  of  struggle  - When  something  like  the  Burna- 
by Mountain  camp,  or  a large  demonstration,  or  potentially  even  a new 
project  of  exploitation  presents  itself,  we  can  get  together  with  people 
that  we  know  and  trust  and  discuss  ways  to  respond.  From  these  groups 
we  can  engage  in  a critical  manner  with  others  in  the  struggle  while 
building  our  capacity  to  act  in  our  own  groups  (potentially  in  coordina- 
tion with  others).  We  can  bring  the  energy  of  groups  rather  than  passive 
spectators  to  anything  that  may  be  happening.  Sometimes  the  best  sup- 
port that  one  can  give  is  creating  new  fronts  for  the  enemy  to  defend, 
and  participants  for  them  to  be  weary  of. 

• Practice  autonomy  - It  is  all  well  and  good  not  to  want  to  overstep 
ones  boundaries  when  it  may  be  limiting  to  others.  Contrary  to  what 
many  believe  though,  the  best  way  to  limit  others  can  actually  be  to  fol- 
low along  passively.  Again,  with  small  or  large  groups  of  trusted  com- 
rades, various  actions  can  be  taken  which  will  build  our  experience, 
and  analysis  through  that  experience  will  do  a great  deal  more  than  just 
“shutting  up”.  It  can  be  a great  learning  experience  or  it  can  be  a com- 
plete waste  of  time  to  listen  to  others  in  a social  movement.  A practice 
of  autonomy  as  groups  or  individuals  means  setting  our  own  standards 
and  thereby  strengthening  another’s  as  long  as  we  have  a common  tra- 
jectory.